Shooting a Live Stage Event

Sometimes concerts need to be filmed. This can be because they need to be livestreamed, recorded for later, or because a movie or TV show demands that a concert be filmed. While some concerts are relatively quiet and only feature one or two people on a stage, others are rowdy events packed with action and the cinematography needs to reflect that.

For live events, you really only get one shot to get a great take as a concert video director, and with all the variables that you must contend with it can be hard to get that perfect shot on film. However, there are a lot of ways to handle the variables and get the great recording.

First, you’ll need to bring several different ways of recording audio. If you’ve been given permission to record the concert then seed your devices all around the stage. Then you can get the roars of the crowd, the clear sounds of the music, and the ambience of the entire scene. Place it all together and you get a great experience.

Just be careful to not put your audio recorders too close to a speaker, because it can get too loud and cause distortions in the audio. The same thing goes with cameras, where you will need to get a wide variety of angles of the stage, crowd, instruments, and performers. Set up cameras at various angles, and then play with the footage in editing.

concert video director

The angles you need will depend on if you need the full song or the full show, but try to at least get some shots of the band members while staying away from the angles you don’t need. No one wants to see a concert at a bad angle, because it’s an audio and visual experience.